Has Penny Wong got it more right than wrong? 

I have read with interest comments in the press following the announcement by Penny Wong Finance Minister, Commonwealth Government of Australia and her partner Sophie Albouache that they are expecting a child.   Instead of the congratulations most parents-to-be receive, this happy couple have also been subjected to questionable criticism…as is evident in an article by Miranda Devine in the Sunday Herald Sun, August 14 with the header Nuclear units still best for children.

According to Devine many of today’s problems – and in particular the current rioting in the UK – are a consequence of women raising children without a father. It is her view that only a married heterosexual couple in a nuclear unit household should bear and raise children and that any variation on this model is not beneficial to a child or for our society. Yet the nuclear family that she sees as best for children is a new phenomenon…coinciding with many of the issues apparent in relationships and society today.

From prehistoric until recent times, parents usually shared the responsibility of rearing children with members of their extended family and their community.  Women who reared children without a husband were likely to have similar support. This is perhaps the reason why those widowed as a consequence of war and raised ‘fatherless’ children did so without their offspring being thought likely to be delinquents or misfits.

It seems to me that the nuclear family itself may well have increased the likelihood of the anti social behaviour that has occurred in England. These days there is often incredible pressure placed on a couple because in the majority of households both parents work.  They often lack the support of an extended family and a community, which had been the norm for humankind from prehistoric times. The nuclear family can be a very stressful and conflicted environment for parents and their children – as the high incidence of divorce and the problems associated with disturbed and disruptive youth demonstrate.

Penny and Sophie have made a conscious decision as two women who obviously love each other to share their lives and their caring with one or more children.  That they have a lesbian relationship does not mean that there will not be significant male role models who will be involved in the rearing of their child.  It is likely that they will look to male family and friends to provide masculine role models.  It is also likely that they will have more support than many a heterosexual couple in a traditional ‘nuclear unit’ are likely to enjoy.

Let’s wish them well.